Ellory Elkayem’s “Eight Legged Freaks” came out during a horrendous time. First it was a limited release, unleashed around the time another Spider oriented movie was breaking box office records, and it was released during a time where audiences were still bruised from 9/11 and weren’t too keen on welcoming horror comedies in to their lives quite yet. It’s a shame since “Eight Legged Freaks” is a pitch perfect horror comedy that celebrates everything from B movies, slasher movies, disaster movies, and the classic monster movies like “Them!” and “Mosquito.” Ellory Elkayem based a lot of “Eight Legged Freaks” on his short film “Larger Than Life,” which is very much in the spirit of what we see on the big screen. It is a black and white ode to the sixties monster movies with Elkayem conjuring up what’s so gross and icky about spiders. I originally saw “Larger than Life” on television in 2000 when it premiered on the short film television series “Exposure” on the Sci-Fi Channel here in America.
Tag Archives: Comedy
Night of Something Strange (2016)
Jonathan Straiton’s “Night of Something Strange” seems to exist only to test the audience’s gag reflexes and nothing more. There is no story, no main character, the narrative is a mess, the pacing is uneven, the zombies that Straiton conceives are so poorly fleshed out, and in the end when Straiton throws out the script to deliver a non-ending, the joke falls flat. To prove how inept the movie is, after the prologue we enter in to the main narrative with character Christine delivering a heaping helping of exposition, narrating the set up for the movie as she writes in her journal. The latter portion of the movie reveals that, no, she’s by no means the central character and final girl. It’s just unfocused badly drawn out dreck that makes the movie such a chore to endure.
B.C. Butcher (2016) [Blu-Ray]
Kansas Bowling’s “B.C. Butcher” is the indie success tale of 2016.
“BC Butcher” was made by Ms. Bowling when she was seventeen and she poured all of her resources in to making an hour long feature that paid tribute to the B movies of the sixties. Bowling has a clear cut love for drive-in trash like “Teenage Caveman” and “Eegah!” and delivers a schlocky indie film that also doubles as the first slasher film set during the caveman era. Filled with a lot of call backs to the sixties, and absolutely no attention to historical accuracy, Bowling has an obvious goal here, delivering a movie that’s more a practice in tongue in cheek, rather than straight up horror. You really can’t bash a film that features a supporting role by Kato Kaelin, and is narrated by Kadeem Hardison, too heavily.
Robot Monster Lives!
Has there ever been a more bizarre creature than Ro-Man, the extraterrestrial robot that looks like a gorilla wearing a diving helmet? On this episode, we learn the story behind the making of “Robot Monster” and the life of its mysterious creator, Phil Tucker, with our guest Anders Runestad, author of the book “I Cannot, Yet I Must.” We also get to discuss Tucker’s work with Lenny Bruce on the equally bizarre “Dance Hall Racket” and the stories behind his lost films “Space Jockey” and “Pachuco.”
The Trouble with Terkel (2017)
An animated re-release/recycling of a hit Danish animated film, “The Trouble with Terkel” was released in 2004, and rather than remake the original animated movie, this new version is re-released with a new title, and a hastily recorded American dub was slapped on to the film. There’s no update to the animation, no re-editing, or anything of the sort. 2004 feels like a whole other century ago, so it’s not surprising “The Trouble with Terkel” watches like a painfully outdated mess. It also doesn’t help that the producers kept all of the country’s background signs and whatnot. So when our characters are in the candy store buying “Sukkerfryd Slik” with “Fedt Nuder!” it’s impossible to not get pulled out of the paper thin narrative.
The Edge of Seventeen (2016)
Easily one of the best films of 2016, Kelly Freman Craig’s “The Edge of Seventeen” is a wonderful drama comedy teeming with engaging characters and compelling human dilemmas all of which garner a sense of sheer sadness. Not since “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” have I seen a drama comedy evoke the themes of John Hughes so beautifully. Too often when directors and writers try to invoke Hughes, they forget the key element to their narrative that the main protagonists can be and often are as flawed and selfish as the supporting characters and antagonists. The same can be said for “The Edge of Seventeen” where Hailee Steinfeld is incredibly adorable and compelling as Nadine Franklin. From the moment we meet her, Nadine is her own worst enemy, she’s someone who is always doubting herself and on the verge of a break down.
The PC Thug: Five Reasons Why It’s Time for “The Big Bang Theory” To End
I am a big fan of “The Big Bang Theory.” I love the show, I think it’s hilarious, it consistently makes me laugh, and if I’m bored I’ll turn on cable and sit through a three hour marathon on TBS here in America. I’ve been watching it since season one and have found its ability to change its mold and renew itself entertaining, time and time again. The shift from a gimmicky sitcom about four geeky guys and the hot girl next door to four geeky guys learning to navigate actual relationships with three women has been fun to experience. That said, “The Big Bang Theory” really needs to end in season eleven.
With Season ten currently in progress here in America, it doesn’t look like the show is preparing to resolve all of its sub-plots, so I think it’s fair for the show to end on season eleven and go out on a high note. I mean, it would be great if the show ended on a high. It made its point and proved all its critics wrong. It lasted over a decade as one of the highest rated shows on TV, it has a massive following, and it’s so popular even the syndicated reruns on basic cable draw in so many viewers, they’ve managed to earn bigger ratings than original cable TV series’. It’s time for “The Big Bang Theory” to end, and here’s why.